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Lanka has more mobile phones per person
The mobile telephone users in Sri Lanka have increased rapidly over the year 2011 with more than 105 telephone connections for 100
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the number of mobile broadband subscriptions exceeded one billion in 2010 after reaching 600 million in 2009 and the ranks of cell phone subscribers swelled to five billion people in 2010 thanks to the growth of smartphones in developed nations and mobile services in poor nations. Meanwhile PHYSORG.COM has reported that the increase in use of mobile phones in the developing world is increasingly seen in the areas of mobile banking where people can conduct financial transactions via mobile subscriptions even if they do not own bank accounts, as well as in health services because of the growing trend in sending message reminders to subscribers regarding medical appointment schedules or instructions on use of vaccines and medication such as anti-retrovirals.
people, authorities said yesterday.
According to a central bank annual report, telephone connections have increased 5.4% and the connections increased to 21.9mn by the end of 2011, a spokesperson from the central bank said.
“There is also a considerable increase in the Internet connections as new connections have increased by 4% over the year 2011,” he stated.
The country’s population is estimated at 21.4mn.
He said the increase in the mobile phone use in the country is partly due to the end of three decades of civil war in the northern and eastern parts of the country, reported Xinhua.
Many of the new connections are obtained by those who were in the former war affected parts of the country and the competition in the mobile telephone connection providers has also increased the number of new connections in the country.
A recent study also revealed that the use of mobile phones has grown rapidly among the poor in Sri Lanka and the mobile phone has become an almost indispensable business tool among small entrepreneurs and farmers.
IANS